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1564–1616

76

William Shakespeare

Why is my verse so barren of new pride, So far from variation or quick change? Why with the time do I not glance aside To new-found methods, and to compounds strange?

Why write I still all one, ever the same, And keep invention in a noted weed, That every word doth almost tell my name, Showing their birth, and where they did proceed?

O! know sweet love I always write of you, And you and love are still my argument; So all my best is dressing old words new, Spending again what is already spent:

For as the sun is daily new and old, So is my love still telling what is told.

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76 · William Shakespeare · Poetry Cove